'Excuse me waiter, there's a crustacean in my cookie'
By Jessica Clontz, October 2009
Staff Writer
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AP Photo by Pat Wellenbach
A freshly caught Maine lobster is seen on the wharf at Cundy's Harbor, Maine. He may also be seen lurking in your pastry products. |
Last week I ate the most amazing ginger cookie ever created. As with most things in life, if they taste good, they must not be good for you. That’s when I begrudgingly looked at the ingredients list. I was under the assumption that I would find the usual calorie laden contents; loads of butter mixed with a cotton candy portion of sugar. The cookies did contain a barrel of margarine and enough sugar to make a wedding cake; however, this was no ordinary ingredients list. There was a “May contain,” under the normal laundry list of additives.
This “May contain” section included the normal precautionary list of allergen sufferers’ worst nightmares: “milk, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, sesame seeds, eggs,”
I was utterly confused. Shellfish? Of all the ingredients that may have ended up in these miraculous ginger cookies, shellfish was the one I was not expecting.
I can understand the normal list of baker’s ingredients that may be rolling around the same pans as the cookies, like peanuts. I have also taken into consideration that the makers of these cookies have to take every precautionary role in protecting their consumers, but is there really a crustacean in my cookie?
Were these cookies made in a factory down by the seashore? Or perhaps these cookies were made in a bakery that also made shrimp scampi? The likelihood seems almost near impossible, but what if by some twist of fate this was actually true. I want to know if there could be some portion of a sea creature in my cookie.
I was left with the horrific picture of a huge cherry red lobster, claws pinching about, and somehow scurrying into the same batter as my ginger cookies. It seems almost as drastic as saying ‘careful, this cookie may contain any possible ingredient that was used in or around the bakery; and by the way, there’s a Joe’s Crab Shack next door so an Alaskan blue crab may have found its way into your pre-packaged pastry’.
To me this conundrum was silly and a little grotesque, but what about those who were highly allergic to shellfish? Do they stick to this “May contain” list or do they just ignore it all together. I couldn’t imagine someone turning down one of these cookies based on the fact that there could be some minute possibility of shellfish ending up in the mix. They really are fantastic cookies, with or without the shrimp particles.
Luckily for me I do not suffer from any allergens related to shellfish and I can blissfully enjoy my ginger cookies worry free. As for those who are allergic to shellfish beware; there could be a rouge shrimp lurking in your cookie! |
